Authoritarian governments of all stripes love — and need — to keep a tight leash on their citizens. Ten years ago, the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China was kinda comfortable with allowing its citizens to engage in capitalism and explore what the free market had to offer — a lot of Western businesses set up shop in the nation's major cities.
The West became famished for fast fashion and reasonably priced brands like HiSense, TCL, and Oppo. When I visited China in 2017, the government was cracking down on access to news from outside of Chinese borders. It was a friendly, welcoming place. If you're dumb enough to turn down Chinese barbecue, you could buy Kentucky Fried Chicken or a drink from Starbucks. I was able to buy a cable I needed at an Apple Store in Qingdao.
A lot has changed since then. At the same time that Xi Jinping has been consolidating power and building up the country's military, the landscape for Chinese business owners has shifted. Businesses that were freed from state ownership have been yoinked back into the country's oversight once again. Trade relations with other nations have been tidied up and, where little government interference once existed, there's now a giant knot of red gaffer's tape.
Even China's criminal enterprises were touched by this sea change. It's more challenging to find a government official who'll look the other way, of late. The risk of being caught by the National Supervisory Commission is too high. And it's whispered that what crime is allowed to flourish, such as fentanyl created outside of approved channels, needs to give a taste of their profits to the NPC. No matter how much is paid, selling illicit goods to people inside the country, if it's detrimental to the control and smooth operation of Chinese society, is crushed with an iron fist. For those who make their living in the dark, it's much more lucrative—and much safer—to sell their wares outside of the country. That goes for drugs, weapons, counterfeit luxury items, and, surprisingly, digital piracy.
Despite their unique, vibrant culture, the Chinese people are pretty horny for Western media content. For a while, it was almost as easy to find Handi-Cam captured copies of American films and software as it was in Mexico. There's zero tolerance for it now. You'd think that the risk would drive the street price for these goods up, but just like officials now shunning brown paper envelopes stuffed with cash, the risk of being caught is giving crooks the no feeling.
So, just like their drug-making cousins, content pirates have started selling their goods, almost exclusively, outside of the country. The problem is bad enough that the International Intellectual Property Alliance felt the need to moan about it in a letter to the Chinese government:
Unfortunately, market access restrictions remain the primary driver behind persistent, evolving, and rampant piracy in China. While significant piracy in China's domestic market remains an enduring challenge, the exporting of pirated content, piracy services, and piracy devices (PDs) from China to foreign markets is a growing and equally troubling global trend. Longstanding market access concerns, including the inability for foreign rights holders to freely engage in distribution of video-on-demand (VOD) services or online video games, timing and deterrence concerns in court cases, and remaining legislative shortcomings, all hamper rights holders' ability to distribute and effectively protect their copyright content, including holding back the Chinese
creative marketplace from reaching its full potential.
It's a polite way of saying "you're stealing our shit and making things that let people steal our shit." If you've seen the signs and online ads for Android-powered IPTV/VOD boxes (or own one), you know what the IIPA is talking about. The same applies to IPTV services, which can be set up and viewed using a streaming stick or on a laptop.
With the promise that streaming content would cost a hell of a lot less than a cable subscription well behind us, the demand for this hardware and the services associated with it is skyrocketing. At a time when folks are being forced to choose between paying their bills or buying food, the comfort that such illicit content — a respite from the stress of living in this rabid era — is hard to calculate. Unless you're counting it in the amount of Chinese yuan renminbi it generates, that is.
